Muckross v Old Alex
Muckross v Old Alex on Friday 23rd January 2009
With a massive squad of 22 players 11 turned up last Friday to take on last year’s league winners Old Alex who only had 10 players. This match turned out to be very hard fought with some interesting stick tackling from both teams. Bernie took matters into her hands from the very start of the match and outshone everyone else in defence with her accurate clearing of the ball which invariably found another Muckross (or even ex Dalkey) player. Our intrepid team, which actually had 3 forwards for the first time this season, got a great break in the first half with the ball being sent up the right hand side of the pitch, for the first time in the game, by Ursula who made a superb pass to Vanessa who jumped over an Alex player who had lost her footing in their circle and smashed the ball past their mature goalie to put us 1-0 up.
Half time arrived soon after and our 2 supporters, Dynamite Dee and ex GB international Elaine gave us a team talk suggesting that perhaps using the right had side of the pitch would be a good idea. The match restarted and Alex drove hard at our defence putting the ball perilously close to the post on several occasions. Several short corners were awarded to them and each time the defence managed to clear them. The last shot on goal came as the final whistle blew and for once our goalie (me) was in the right place at the right time for the ball to ricochet of her kicker.
A brilliant win was recorded and Bernie was awarded player of the match.
Our next match is not until 6th March so you can all have a rest but don’t overdo the eating and drinking.
Judy
Official Manager of the mighty Muckross Vets Team
Muckross V Avoca
9th January – Muckross V Avoca
Dee-saster! The team was very upset to learn that ONE of our star player (I must be careful not to offend anyone) had broken her wrist in the line of duty! Yes folks it appears that during one of her many spectacular dives to try and put the ball in the back of the net during our match against Pembroke in 2008, Dynamo Dee broke her wrist. She valiantly played in the match against Railway (in fact, she may have even played for Railway) despite this injury. However, the lifting of the turkey and the odd wine glass over the Christmas proved too much and Dee has had to moth-ball the stick and boots for a month or two!
This unfortunate mishap obviously put the team into a tail spin and it was an uphill battle from the start whistle – blown by Ref Towers.
Avoca seemed to be suffering from an identity crisis from the start – with shouts of encouragement of “Come on Dalkey” from their very voluble goal keeper which persisted throughout the match. Their various umpires also seemed to be having trouble identifying who they were playing, “eh! The green team’s ball”
Muckross were on the defensive from the start with Judy and the Backs doing well to keep the ball out of the net during the 1st half. Mary Mc Sherry played a blinder clearing the ball off the line more than once while Jean did her fair share of the work. The mid field did Trojan work to try and get the ball to the forward line but to no avail. At half time it was scoreless.
However, something had to give and Avoca eventually found a crack in our defense and managed to get two balls in the back of the net (not at the same time though). Our forward line had very little opportunity to shine during the match which was probably just as well. I reckon the combined age of the forward line was nearly 110 and that just between Emer and yours truly! (It took me a week to recover!)
Now you might wonder what on earth yours truly was doing in the forward line, given that I usually prefer staying at the back and annoy Judy. Well the sad fact is that there was no one else available. It would appear that we have a surplus of defense players but very few forwards!
So if there are any budding forwards in the club that are over 35 and would like to be picked for the 1st team every match - Join the VETs!
The match finished 2-0 in favour of Avoca (or was it Dalkey?) and Mary McSherry was named “Woman of the match”
Next match is on the 23rd of January and unfortunately I’m not available for selection so the forward line is just going to have to do without me!
Good luck with the match and I will be expecting a great match report from someone!!!!
Suzanne
The Geriatrics Co-ordinator